


The Hacker's Bodyguard

by Siolia



Category: Collar x Malice (Visual Novel)
Genre: Bodyguard Romance, Fluff and Angst, Guns, Kidnapping, M/M, Mentioned self-sacrifice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 03:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30133314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siolia/pseuds/Siolia
Summary: Due to an uncharacteristic error, Sasazuka is in need of a bodyguard.  Who else would Minegishi pick but Okazaki?  The two of them ate lunch together after all.Sasazuka should be annoyed having to spend every waking hour with Okazaki, but strangely enough, they get along.  Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thought?
Relationships: Okazaki Kei/Sasazuka Takeru





	The Hacker's Bodyguard

“Do you have to stand in my room?”

“Takeru, you know I have to be here.”

Takeru Sasazuka clicked his tongue and spun his chair around to face Kei Okazaki at the other end of his small apartment. Okazaki had his hands tucked behind his back as he leaned against the wall, smiling amicably in response to the hacker’s deep scowl. Seeing as he wasn’t going to be able to dissuade the SP officer, Sasazuka clicked his tongue again, muttering an “annoying” and turning back around.

“If you hate this that much, you could stay with Yanagi,” Okazaki pointed out.

Sasazuka knew Okazaki only suggested it because it was obvious that he wouldn’t do that. Sure, he would ask Yanagi for help once in a while, but his pride wouldn’t let him drag him into a mess he created for himself. It was his fault for assuming their latest target wouldn’t have a competent security system or a skilled hacker on their side.

Memories of how he got into this predicament started to pour in. He had been researching a small freight company suspected of smuggling weapons and was pulling his usual overtime working from home when he ran into unexpected trouble while trying to access the security footage at their warehouse. Someone initiated a counter-hack, and surprisingly, Sasazuka wasn’t able to stop them before they could trace him. Sure, per his standards, it was a burner computer, but because he’d carelessly tried hacking them from home, they could now find where he lived. He scolded himself for being so thoughtless. It was a real Enomoto move.

Of course, he reported this to Minegishi, and the director had an SP officer assigned to him. And of all the officers, they’d had to pick Okazaki. Sasazuka had thought at this point he was relegated to VIPs, but considering Minegishi regarded him as the savior of the Cyber Crimes division, it was understandable. It’d be a loss for the entire force if something were to happen to him.

He sighed and pinched his brows together. At least Okazaki knew how to make himself invisible, unlike a certain idiot cat. Still, having an SP officer seemed like overkill. There was no evidence these guys would come after him. They’d probably just try to lay low for a while until they could skip town. All the more reason for him to try to catch them as fast as possible.

Just as the thought of Okazaki started to fade from his mind, there was a knock at his door. He checked the time on his computer and frowned. It was nearly one in the morning. His chair swiveled to face the door, but Okazaki motioned for him to stay low before going to the door himself.

~.~

A violet eye peered through the peephole at the delivery person on the other side of the door. She was a woman with a red cap pulled low, hiding her eyes. Suspicious. He opened the door until the chain pulled taut. His hand moved toward his gun, but he stopped himself, holding it against his thigh instead. Takeru hated guns, so he wouldn’t use it unless he absolutely needed to. Okazaki was considerate like that, after all.

“I’m sorry, but we didn’t order any food,” he said before the woman could try anything.

She looked surprised and checked the receipt with the address again, cross-referencing it with the door number in front of her. Her eyes bugged out and then she bowed in apology. Somehow, she’d gotten the wrong building number. Okazaki looked her up and down, checking for any hidden weapons or sleights of hand, but she seemed clean.

“It’s not a problem,” he said. “I hope you find the correct building.”

“Thank you!” She picked up her carrying case and hurried down the steps.

He stepped out to follow her, closing the door behind him. The woman stood next to her scooter, pulling out her cellphone in a hurry. Her hands were shaking, so Okazaki decided she couldn’t be part of the smuggling ring. Then, their eyes met and he waved at her, smiling. This must have put her off because she quickly ended her call and drove away.

As he stepped back into the room, Takeru had crawled out from under his desk and resumed his work. He’d explained to Okazaki that he was trying to buff his security before reattempting to access the warehouse’s security footage. Right now, though, he was staring at him. More specifically, at his gun.

“Do you need to wear that in here?” He scowled.

“I can do a lot with my hands, but not if they’re far away.”

Once again, he clicked his tongue and stood up from his chair to cross the room toward the kitchen. He dug around in his cupboards until he pulled out a small bag of powdered mini donuts. Okazaki eyed him enviously as he returned to his desk. Takeru raised a brow and then held one out to him.

“Since you made yourself useful,” he said, “you deserve a reward.”

“Thank you, Takeru~!” Okazaki gratefully received the gift and popped it in his mouth, doing his best not to make a mess.

~.~

Takeru was cute in his own way. Okazaki had determined as much while observing him when he worked in Yanagi’s office. He hid his true meaning behind barbed words, but if one were to snip the thorns, a beautiful rose of kindness could be discovered within. That was if one were to use poetry to describe him. Rather, Okazaki considered him similar to a hamster, always stuffing his cheeks with sweet things. He was that kind of cute. It made him want to feed him more and more to see how far his cheeks could puff out.

Even SP officers had downtime. Okazaki didn’t guard Takeru while he was working, and since he was technically on duty, he didn’t need to be there except to make reports. So at the moment, he was shopping for donuts before picking him up from police headquarters. Takeru hated Japanese flavors, so he grabbed him sweet ones like cinnamon and s’mores flavor while he picked up a specialty matcha flavored and a raspberry-cheese flavored donut for himself.

Walking down the lamp-lit sidewalk, he heard his phone notification sound. He’d set it personalized to each of his friends (or at least people he considered his friends; whether the feeling was mutual was debatable at best), and the “kushi-kushi tiki-tiki woo~” signified it was from Takeru. Pulling it out, the curt “You’re late.” made him chuckle. He sent a dogeza sticker in response before tucking it away again.

Takeru wasn’t Ichika. He had his ideals, but his brand of justice and his methods didn’t quite resonate with hers. Okazaki found himself caught between them. He appreciated Ichika’s desire to protect everyone, it aligned with his own ideals, but Takeru was quick-thinking and just as passionate. And although he was able to make the hard choices, he was a little too willing to make sacrifices. Still, both Takeru and Ichika were willing to put in the elbow grease, taking the weight of their choices upon themselves so as to lessen the burden on others. They were both admirable. But, since his chance to fulfill his dream came and passed with Ichika, it seemed Takeru was his only option now.

While the other was on his mind, he caught sight of the head of seaweed standing outside the station, scowling at his phone. Takeru didn’t scare easily, but Okazaki wanted to try anyway. Lessening his presence, he tried to blend into the darkness, creeping up behind Takeru while he was preoccupied.

“That stupid, sleeping idiot. He’s not usually late,” Takeru muttered to himself.

Okazaki’s mouth was open, ready to shout and scare him, but instead, he found himself smiling, “Aww, were you worried about me? You’re a good person, Takeru.”

Takeru flinched, clicking his tongue and spinning around to face him, “Idiot! You’re late!”

“Uh-huh, sorry! I was buying these,” Okazaki passed him the bag of donuts.

“What weird flavors did you buy?” Takeru eyed him dubiously and took a peek inside the bag. After a moment, he said, “Not bad. At least you had sense enough to separate the matcha from the rest.”

“Just for you, my sweets prince,” Okazaki joked.

Takeru frowned, “Don’t call me that, idiot.”

“You’re so cute, Takeru~!”

“Shut up! And don’t stand so close to me!”

Okazaki nodded and gave him the space he asked for. Dying for someone so cute wouldn’t be so bad, even if he knew Takeru wouldn’t cry for him. It was actually better that way.

~.~

Sasazuka cursed to himself. He’d gotten into the security cameras, but all the footage had been wiped. All of the records, e-mails, access history, and other information had been deleted as well. In fact, they hadn’t even put up a resistance this time. Of course, he thought, since he’d wasted his time trying to be careful, they’d had enough time to clean up after themselves. They probably moved everything to a new server, so he’d have to start over entirely.

The only things pulling him through this trying time were the sweets Okazaki had been stuffing him with. It’d been a week, and by this point, he’d gotten used to the other man’s presence in his apartment at night. Just when he was about to explode with rage, the SP officer would pass him a donut, a candy bar, or some other sugary treat for him to gnaw on instead. The understanding smile he’d give him almost seemed angelic in those circumstances. That was, until he spoke.

“You’re so cute, Takeru!”

“Shut up,” Sasazuka grumbled through the fruit snack between his teeth. It trailed down his front, stopping at his hips where it pooled in his lap like excess yarn. He liked this snack since he could eat it hands-free and it lasted a while. The downside was how sticky it was.

“Is that any good?” Okazaki asked him.

“What, you’ve never had it before?” Sasazuka held it up with his fingers and nibbled on it. “It’s pretty popular in the U.S.”

“Can I try it?” There was a dangerous gleam in Okazaki’s eyes.

“Go ahead,” Sasazuka said, waving dismissively. He’d expected Okazaki to grab one for himself, but instead, the SP officer grabbed the other end from out of his lap and stuck it in his mouth, “What are you doing!? Get your own! Do you think this is Lady and the Tramp or something?”

He ripped the end that Okazaki had bitten off from the whole and continued to nibble away at it, ignoring Okazaki’s teary-eyed pout. After a few seconds, Okazaki stepped away to find his own snack. “Well, it was still pretty good,” he said, “even if I didn’t get to bond with Takeru.”

“You call that bonding?” Sasazuka scoffed.

“Like the pocky game!”

“That’s a flirting technique.”

Okazaki whined, “But I want to get closer to Takeru.”

“Idiot,” Sasazuka turned back to his computer, but a smile stuck to his lips.

~.~

A couple of hours passed with nary a peep from Okazaki. Sasazuka was beginning to worry that he’d seriously broken him until he realized that this was always how it was. When had he come to crave conversation with the other? Enomoto was always loud, so he’d gotten used to working through the noise, but he’d never  _ wanted _ it before.

He looked away from his computer for a moment to glance behind him and saw that Okazaki was asleep. Somehow, he always managed to get away with sleeping on the job. He was still standing, too.

Just then, an alarm sounded. Sasazuka whipped around and started assessing the issue. Someone was trying to hack his system again.

“What’s going on?” Okazaki was at his side in an instant.

“Oh, I was doing some fishing earlier,” he said. “Looks like I finally got a bite.”

“I see.”

Another reason Sasazuka was glad it was Okazaki and not Hoshino or Enomoto. He caught on quickly. Without having to explain that he was purposely poking around the company’s website and doing a shoddy job of investigating to lure their tech specialist into a trap and do a reverse lookup, Okazaki had understood. In fact, if Sasazuka played his cards right, he might even get to them right here, right now. Knowing he should back off, Okazaki gave Sasazuka his space.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, Sasazuka was surprised at how skilled this person was. To his right, he could see Okazaki assessing the pillows on his bed. Apparently, they weren’t up to snuff since he tossed them aside and went about testing mattress firmness instead. Finally, after nearly an hour, he got through. Whoever this was, he would have to commend them. Maybe they should even recruit this person. They were more skilled than half the people in Cyber Crime.

Once it was over, he whipped out his cellphone and dialed Minegishi. It didn’t take long for the director to answer.

“I got it.”

There wasn’t much to say after that. The call was brief, and when Sasazuka turned to face Okazaki, he smiled, “Guess you won’t have to crash here for much longer.”

It would be an understatement to say Okazaki was disappointed.

**Author's Note:**

> First of the slash-fics I plan to write. I don't know anything about hacking, so please forgive me if it sounds vague and unbelievable!! I tried...
> 
> Sorry it's so short, too!


End file.
